Calling the King (Königrufen) · the doubling ladder, step by step
The Calling the King rules keep their base rules free of doubling and give you the short version in their Expansions, under “Kontra and Rekontra”. A player who does not believe a contract or an announced bonus will succeed says Kontra, and it pays double. The side that was doubled may answer Rekontra, and it pays four times. The contract and each announced bonus are doubled separately, and a Kontra said before the talon is picked up, the Hüttenfleck, is a rule to agree on first.
This page is the long version. It covers who may double and when, what a Kontra touches and what it leaves alone, how the doubling meets the bonuses and the bigger contracts, the steps some tables play above Rekontra, and where the tables of Austria stop agreeing with one another.
The window
Doubling is said before the first card is played, in the round of announcements, the same moment in which the Pagat Ultimo, the II Ultimo and the King Ultimo are spoken. In a contract with the talon, that round follows the talon exchange, once the Declarer has discarded back to twelve cards. At most tables it closes when three players in a row have said nothing but “pass”, and the first card may not fall until it has closed.
The talk goes round in turns, as many times round as it takes, and you speak only at your own turn. That matters, because every answer needs a turn of its own: a Rekontra is only possible once somebody has said Kontra.
Austrian tournament rules add a manner worth borrowing. Each player announces bonuses once, and at that same turn must double anything already on the table that they mean to challenge. After that they may only challenge what is announced after their turn. Your turn to speak is your chance to speak.
Who may double, and what doubling says about you
The Kontra is the challenge of a player who does not believe the contract or the announced feat will be delivered. The doubted side answers it rather than opens it.
In the positive contracts one Kontra counts for the whole side: both Defenders live with it, and so do the Declarer and the Partner who holds the called King. In the negative contracts, where one player faces three, each Defender says Kontra for themselves only, which the Austrian sources call contra ad personam. In the Dodge Round, where everybody plays for themselves, most rule sets have no Kontra at all; the Expansions describe the groups that allow one there.
There is a second job the word does, and it is the reason Kontra and secrecy belong on the same page. Many tables expect a Defender who wants to announce a bonus of their own to attach a Kontra to something the other side has said, so that the Kontra shows which side they are on. “Kontra the Pagat Ultimo, and Trull” is the shape of it. The main rules do not require this, but you will meet it, and Hungarian Tarokk builds a whole etiquette on the same idea.
One kindness in the same tradition: if it turns out afterwards that two secret partners doubled each other by accident, the Kontra does not count.
What a Kontra actually doubles
A Kontra doubles the one thing it names, and nothing else. The contract and every announced bonus are separate bets, and each carries its own ladder. So name your target: “Kontra the Call” or “Kontra the King Ultimo“.
- On the contract, it doubles the contract’s Victory Points. In Simplified Scoring the winning side, whichever that turns out to be, simply adds double.
- On an announced bonus, it doubles that bonus alone. Whoever earns it adds double, and an announced bonus that fails pays the other side double.
- A silent bonus cannot be doubled. Nobody knows it is being attempted, so there is nothing on the table to challenge.
- The doublings multiply. A Pagat Ultimo is worth 1 Victory Point silently and 2 Victory Points announced; a Kontra makes the announced one 4 Victory Points and a Rekontra 8 Victory Points.
The steps
The two sides take turns. The doubting side opens, and the doubted side answers.
| Step | Spoken by | Stake |
|---|---|---|
| (no Kontra) | ×1 | |
| Kontra | the doubting side | ×2 |
| Rekontra | the doubted side | ×4 |
The main rules stop at Rekontra. Some tables go further, with Subkontra (also called Sub or Hirsch) said by the doubting side at eight times the stake, and in some circles a Mordkontra above it. These steps are a house variant: the main rules do not teach them and print no value for them. Austrian tournament rules draw the line at Subkontra by decree. The Styrian cup states flatly that there is only Kontra, which doubles, Rekontra, which pays fourfold, and Subkontra, which pays eightfold. Settle your own ceiling before the first deal, not in the middle of an argument.
The Hüttenfleck
The Hüttenfleck is a Kontra said before the talon is picked up, spoken into the dark while nobody has seen a single one of the six talon cards. Some circles know the same call as the Mutterleib, the womb.
The main rules print it as a rule to agree on first: a Kontra said before the talon is picked up makes the hand pay four times at once. The name is well attested in Austrian tournament rules, which mention it in order to forbid it: the Styrian and the Wiener Zeitung cups both rule that a Kontra before the talon is bought is not possible.
Doubling and the bigger contracts
Some contracts already carry a value of their own that a Kontra builds on.
- Blind Solo (Sechserdreier): if you win, you add 5 Victory Points; if you fail, each Defender adds 10 Victory Points. A Kontra on the contract doubles both numbers.
- Grand Call (Solorufer) and Grand Solo (Solodreier), two of the main rules’ added contracts, pay each bonus double: a silent Pagat Ultimo pays 2 Victory Points and an announced one 4 Victory Points. A Kontra on an announced bonus doubles it once more, because the contract and each announced bonus are doubled separately.
- No-Trump (Farbendreier) and No-Trump Solo (Farbensolo) score none of the bonuses, so in these contracts the only thing a Kontra can double is the contract.
- Valat: win every trick and the contract pays four times its value, eight times if you announced the Valat before the first trick. A Call won with every trick pays 4 Victory Points, announced 8 Victory Points, and a No-Trump 16 Victory Points, announced 32 Victory Points. No bonus is scored in a Valat hand. Some tournament rules add that a Valat cancels a Kontra said on the plain contract; the main rules do not teach this.
- The called King in the talon: the base rule deals the hand again. In its traditional rule the Declarer may concede at once, and then each Defender adds the plain Call value of 1 Victory Point, and no Kontra is allowed on a conceded hand. If the Declarer plays on alone instead, each Defender adds that same 1 Victory Point if the contract is lost.
Where the sources disagree
Three disagreements are worth stating openly, because a visitor at an unfamiliar table will meet all three.
- How far the ladder runs. English Wikipedia, following Mayr and Sedlaczek, treats Sub and Hirsch as two names for the same eightfold step and puts Mordkontra above it at sixteen times the stake. pagat.com instead counts Hirschkontra and Mordkontra as two further steps above Subkontra, so that an announced bonus can end at sixty-four times its silent value. The main rules teach neither reading, because they stop at Rekontra.
- Kontra in the Dodge Round. pagat.com, both Wikipedias and the Styrian cup rules agree there is no Kontra when everybody plays against everybody. German Wikipedia notes that some circles nonetheless play a Kontra in the Dodge Round “with various meanings”. The Expansions describe one of them: said against the player you expect to lose, even against yourself, and each Kontra doubles the value once more.
- The bidding around it. pagat.com allows a higher-priority seat to overcall with an equal contract, while the Wikipedias and the tournament rules require every bid to climb. The main rules follow the stricter reading: every seat, the Forehand included, bids higher or passes, so there is no standing in Calling the King.
Back to the rules: the Calling the King rules, Expansions, the entries “Kontra and Rekontra”, “Valat”, “Called King in the talon” and “Dodge Round: higher stakes”; and Core Concepts, “Kontra”, where the Kontra is first introduced as the Defenders’ challenge. The Calling the King puzzles practise the decision.
Sources
- pagat.com, Königrufen, Announcements and Kontra: the round of announcements, “kontra the game” or “kontra the king ultimo”, rekontra, subkontra, optionally hirschkontra and mordkontra, and the rule that a defender may only announce a bonus if they also make some kontra. pagat.com
- German Wikipedia, Königrufen: Kontra doubles the contract or the bonus, contracts and bonuses are doubled independently, Rekontra, Subkontra eightfold, some circles to sixty-four; a Kontra binds the whole side in positive contracts and is individual in negative ones; no Kontra in the Dodge Round, though variants exist “mit verschiedenen Bedeutungen”. de.wikipedia.org
- English Wikipedia, Königrufen: the same ladder in translation, with Subcontra (Sub, Superkontra or Hirsch) eightfold and Mordkontra sixteenfold, after Mayr and Sedlaczek; announced trick bonuses can always be doubled, hand bonuses cannot. en.wikipedia.org
- Steirischer Tarockcup rules 2017/2018 (Markus Mair tradition): “Es gibt nur Kontra (doppelt), Re (vierfach) und Sub (achtfach). Kontra vor Talonkauf (Mutterleib, Hüttenfleck) ist nicht möglich”; Kontra for the whole side in positive contracts and individually in negative ones; no Kontra in the Dodge Round; each player announces bonuses once and must double at that turn; a Valat cancels a Kontra on the contract. tarocksteiermark.wordpress.com
- Markus Mair, TAROCK Königrufen Grundregeln (tarock.tirol): “Kontra, Re- und Subkontra verdoppeln jeweils den Wert der kontrierten Ansage. Spiel und Zusätze können getrennt kontriert werden. Stellt sich erst hinterher heraus, dass sich versehentlich zwei Partner kontriert haben, zählt das Kontra nicht.” brzezowsky.at